The Federal Aviation Administration of the United States (FAA) publishes a manual entitled “Instrument Flying Handbook,” a publication to which pilots may refer when being trained to fly under instrument flight rules (IFR). Part of training involves the use of an instrument approach procedure (IAP) chart which provides the method to descend and land safely in low visibility conditions. The FAA establishes an IAP after thorough analyses of obstruction, terrain features, and navigational facilities. Maneuvers, including altitude changes, course corrections, and other limitations, are prescribed in the IAP. The approach charts, commonly referred to as approach plates, reflect the criteria associated with the US Standard for Terminal Instrument Approach Procedures (TERPs), which prescribes standardization methods for use in designing instrument flight procedures.
IAP charts are published by the FAA and other publishers. The format of the FAA IAP chart is standardized and includes the following sections: margin identification, pilot briefing (and notes), plan view, profile view, landing minimums, and airport diagram. Each of these is discussed in the “Instrument Flying Handbook.”
Another publisher of IAP charts is Jeppesen. Headquartered in Inverness, Colo., United States, Jeppesen is owned by The Boeing Company, a well-known manufacturer of aircraft. Colloquially referred to as “Jepp charts” or “Jepps,” Jeppesen IAP charts are popular among pilots, and their popularity extends to electronic charts that replicate the paper IAP charts on electronic displays.
The format of the Jeppesen IAP chart is also standardized and includes the following sections: heading, communications, briefing information, minimum safe altitude (MSA), plan view, profile view, conversion tables, icons, and landing minimums. Each of these will be discussed herein.
The IAP chart is mainly used as the pilot or crew prepares to perform the IAP. The pilot or crew reviews the IAP and notes for any unusual conditions applicable to the IAP, and verifies that the aircraft equipment such as displays, autoflight system, and flight management system (FMS) are properly configured for the IAP.
During training, pilots are trained to look (or glance) at the IAP chart while flying the IAP. Because the format is standardized, pilots learn to look to the part of the page containing the information they seek. Because the IAP chart contains the information pilots need to fly the IAP on one side of a page, the amount of space needed is relatively significant, taking up a significant amount of “display real estate” and causing pilots to having shift their eyes to different sections of the page.
The IAP chart is a very dense collection of information printed on a sheet of paper having the size of 5½ inches by 8½ inches. Some of the information may be “small print” and easy to overlook. Although the standardized format is useful for the production of the IAP chart and pilots have learned to glean important IAP by shifting their eyes to all parts of the chart, it still imparts a visual burden.
Also, much of the same information contained in the plan view and profile view sections of the IAP chart are also presented on or in a horizontal situation display (HSD) and/or vertical situation display (VSD). For a pilot using the IAP chart in an aircraft that is equipped with the HSD and/or VSD, there exists a redundancy of IAP information that may not be necessary. This contributes to a significant waste of display space. Also, the information contained in the other sections of the IAP chart is presented in a compact, difficult-to-read format which is not organized in a way that is easy for the pilot to comprehend. Much of this information is specific to a particular set of landing configurations (such as an approach lighting system being inoperative) that do not occur on a regular basis.